DETAILS ON TRANSPORT INFRASTRUCTURE IN ECOTECHNOPARK

EcoFestival was held for the second year in a row, and in recognition of both new and experienced guests, became one of the landmarks of Belarus. We offer to your attention a description of string-rail track structure and six tracks at EcoTechnoPark. We also plan to share with you a video on SkyWay overpasses and the most interesting questions discussed with the guests of EcoFest in an “open mike” mode by the General designer of SkyWay Technologies Co. Anatoly Yunitskiy. 

Today Anatoly Yunitskiy, author and founder of SkyWay technology, can demonstrate a complete and full-size picture painted in metal, concrete and composite materials. You see here six routes with transport infrastructure built at the second level that is above the ground: four suspended and two mounted transport systems.

The first of the complexes that was built is a lightweight suspended system with a length of 800 meters, with semi-rigid string rails and 40-meter spans. You see it on your left. At the locking temperature, and it is zero degrees, pre-tensioning in its track structure was 180 tons.

The second built complex is the overpass with a sagging track structure having a total length of 800 m and spans of 200 m, 400 m and 200 m. It is located right behind it.

These two overpasses are connected with U-turn circles of 15-m radius and thus forming a single circular track. One of U-turns has a turnout switch.

The third built complex is an overpass with two string trusses (on your right) having a total length of 950 m and spans of 50 m.

Critics of the project sometimes say ― no big deal, they have fixed 15 pillars in the ground, on which plywood modules with a motor from a coffee-grinder are running along the rope.

Firstly, these are not pillars, but high-tech supports of the transport overpass: they are light, slender, designed for a vertical load of 10 to 100 tons and for a horizontal load from 250 to 1,000 tons; from three to 15 meters in height; П- and Г-shaped, made of reinforced concrete and steel, withstanding earthquakes of nine scores on the Richter scale. They are not only anti-vandal, but can protect passengers even in the event of a terrorist attack. For example, detonation of a 10 kg TNT charge will not damage an intermediate support; 100 kg TNT ― no harm to an anchor support. In total, we have installed 49 supports, eight of which are anchor ones.

We have also built two passenger terminals, one interchange hub and three passenger stations. The interchange hub from the urban suspended track to high-speed mounted track and backwards, combined with the anchor support and the SkyWay Museum, is of very decent size ― 12 by 24 meters, but has the capacity of a large airport, such as 1 by 1 km Dubai Airport. This is because SkyWay has completely different logistics, roughly as if on a conveyor belt: continuous traffic without a schedule, not leading to crowding, as it happens at airports and railway stations. 

The string rail track is not a rope in a cableway, but a high-tech transport overpass: light, slender, strong, durable and visually attractive. Moreover, it is not too expensive. For example, a lightweight two-way SkyWay overpass costs from one million dollars per kilometer, the heavy one ― from 2.5 million dollars per kilometer, while the cost of flyovers for conventional monorails, magnetic cushion trains and high-speed railways: lightweight (flyovers) ― from USD 20 million, heavy ones ― from 100 million dollars per kilometer.